BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

09/01/2007

Controversial reports come from Belarus about oil supplies

MINSK, January 8 (Itar-Tass) -- Controversial reports are coming from Belarus about the suspension of Russian oil transit to third countries.

However Foreign Ministry chief spokesman Andrei Popov said, "Belarus has not stopped the transit of Russian oil through its territory to third countries."

In his words, "Pressure at the entrance to the Druzhba pipeline in Belarus was reduced not through the Belarusian side's fault."

Earlier, Belarus confirmed the termination of Russian oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline.

"Oil transit in Belarusian territory through the Druzhba oil pipeline has been stopped," an informed source in the Gomel Transneft company responsible for the transit told journalists.

The company representative pointed out that oil was currently not being pumped to Poland, Germany, and Ukraine on instructions from the Belneftekhim concern.

An official of Poland's PERN company that controls the work of the Polish section of the Druzhba pipeline said earlier that Belarus' Gomel Transneft company, without warning, had stopped the transportation of Russian oil though the Druzhba pipeline to Poland and Germany.

According to the official, his company immediately requested Belarus to report on the reasons for the interruption of oil supplies. However, Gomel Transneft did not respond as to when oil supplies might resume.

Poland's oil stock will suffice for 80 days, Deputy Economics Minister Piotr Naimski said in Warsaw.

In his view, Poland's energy security is not endangered over the disruption of oil supplies by the Druzhba pipeline to Poland and Germany.

Oil supplies to Poland and Germany through the Druzhba pipeline were stopped overnight to Monday, the Polish news television channel TVN 24 reported. "There are problems" with the supply of oil by the Druzhna pipeline to Poland, officials in the Polish Economics Ministry commented on this.

Meanwhile, Russia's Transneft oil company is taking all measures to increase oil supplies to Western Europe and thus make up for the unsanctioned siphoning of transit oil that Belarus has unilaterally started, Transneft CEO Semyon Vainshtok said.

"The Belarusian side on January 6 unilaterally, without warning anybody about anything, started illegal siphoning of oil from the Druzhba pipeline that is meant exclusively for West European consumers," the official said. "Over the past day alone, despite measures taken by Transneft, 900 tonnes of oil from the pipeline were illegally siphoned off and a total of 79,000 tonnes have been illegally taken away since January 6," he stressed.

"The Belarusian side should return to the regime of observing international norms and rules that excludes the application of discriminatory measures to transit supplies," Vainshtok said, adding, "Transit is a sacred cow."

"At present Belarus is impeding normal functioning of the pipeline that runs across its territory and thus hampering transit supplies," Vainshtok stated.

"Transneft is taking all necessary measures in order to increase the export by other routes to West European consumers," the official stressed.

"In particular, the capacities of the Primorsky (Maritime) route have already been increased to the level of 76.5 million tonnes of oil a year," the Transneft head said.

Vainshtok confirmed that European countries were not receiving Russian transit oil through Belarus.

"This is a fact of life," he told Vesti television. He believes that Belarus prepared well in advance for illegal siphoning of Russian oil from the Druzhba oil pipeline.

"The Belarusian side has cancelled contracts for oil supplies to its own oil refineries for January. Why" Because they planned illegal siphoning" of Russian oil, he said.

Earlier, Belarus "adopted unlawful resolutions that imposed a customs duty on the customs transportation of oil through Belarus," Vainshtok said.

He stressed that issues of transit in international law were a "sacred cow".

"No such measures have ever been taken in history on issues of transit, expect of course the time of war," he said.

"No such precedent has occurred in the WTO" over the past decades, he added.

Belarus "is the first precedent when the state introduces a customs duty retroactively," Vainshtok said.

Source:

http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=11139332&PageNum=0